Rants and Weekly Raves #48 (RAWR)

My Beautiful Bride

Not reading this ... SPOILERS! (for me :)Oh My Kim Do-Hyung-ssi! I admit, I sometimes love cinema violence. When a quiet man who just wants to love someone erupts onto my screen with an epic beat-down, I totally swoon. In other words, Episode 10 of this drama really rocked my world. I'm also a huge sucker for a strong man crying, and a solid plot that moves at a good pace, so this show has pretty much been knocking it out of the park for me lately. My one complaint is that the lady cop can't seem to do anything more than look distressed and follow Do-Hyung around, but I suppose she is a KDrama cop, so what more can I expect? For my fellow addicts, here's a little more of the soundtrack to tide us over a few more days:

Apart from wishing for a more equal involvement of Lee Si Young, this drama just never disappoints. Well, I was excited for a Tae Gyu-Do Hyeong team and then cruelly tricked...but maybe it will still happen. Still waiting to see Banker Mom's part. I am convinced she has a part.

Mask

Drunk sis is a confused mess. What did she THINK would happen if she messed with Mom's ability to have surgery? MinWoo and Ji Sook are totally 100% adorable. I do not get Suk Hoon at all. I mean, I do, but he is as bad at planning this revenge as Soo Ae was in Yawang! I just want MinWoo to take his bride and go away from his awful family and be cute and make little fat babies.Aww, I fully support that. Hopefully the crazies will kill each other off (or at least keep each other distracted), and our leads will be able to do just that. They are ridiculously sweet together.Holy cow, Mi-Yeon's character has gone completely off the rails. It's not just that she has no self-control, she is completely unmoored from reality and logic. I've given up even trying to understand her motivations at this point, because I'm convinced they don't exist, and a lazy writer is just using her to create conflict willy-nilly. I'm even more disappointed that Ji-Sook and Min-Woo spent the last half-dozen or so episodes secretly falling in love and learning how to stand up to Suk-Hoon, only to have their strength and teamwork all but totally fall apart as soon as they admitted their love to each other out loud. Well, at least Ji-Sook's did. I'm holding out hope that Min-Woo will rescue her from that fire and then talk some sense into her fast, so that we can enjoy the last two episodes with them being not just adorable (yes, I, too, find them ridiculously adorable), but also true partners.Having a hard time with this now. I feel like now that they are together, it's game over for me. I've tried watching episode 17 four times and haven't made it through yet. May be time to switch to recaps.

Awwww...so cute!!!

Oh My Ghostess

First thing I watched when I got home ... until VERY late. Well, I skipped the bits that bore me, but I think I'll be forgiven - even though it means I really have no clue about the details of the ghost lore. I love the leads and their chemistry ... I can't resist people who can act. The drama is a bit repetitive (the "I want to sleep with you" shenanigans are getting a bit old, aren't they?) but that very last scene in episode 8 made me cry (there was a discussion on twitter: I think Ghosty stepped out deliberately, to let Bong experience this on her own. Others thought there's a love triangle forming - or that the power of love pushed her out). Oh, and can we get rid of (almost) typical second lead? She's an idiot, I want her gone. Please no noble idiocy, drama, alright?! Oh, I'm looking forward to catching up on this one.

It's that pull in to himself and the way he just keeps giving her kisses...sigh
*Double sigh*

Oh, Kakashi, I'm so happy you're back! This was a truly great KDrama kiss -- thank you, thank you, thank you for giffing it!! I'm not sure ghosty's ejection during this scene was voluntary though -- she looked awfully shocked to me when it happened. I'm hoping that it had something to do with the fact that virginity isn't her real grudge, and that now we're going to focus on developing the love story between the two living people and allow our spunky ghost to concentrate on solving her own murder. And while we wait to find out whose theory is correct, I will re-watch that gif. Again. And again. And again... Squee!!!I am IN LOVE with this drama! And that kiss, wow, just wow. I knew my man Jo Jung Suk wouldn't let me down! Love the relationship developing between the girls, love the way Chep looks at Bong Sun, love the acting--love, love, love! I also think Ghosty stepped out voluntarily. I think she was shocked at the emotion coming through from Chep and either couldn't handle it or felt like a voyeur to another person's intimate moment and it made her uncomfortable. I can't wait for the next episode to see what the real reason was.
Yes, as becca says. I didn't feel any evilness from Ghosty, only sadness (and that is why I cried). I think she realized what it means to Bong if she possesses her. She is in love with this man but if she sleeps with him while being possessed, she will not be herself. Ghosty is a truly good person, I think she is considering stepping away entirely. I also saw embarrassment there - indeed, she's a voyeur, of the most terrible kind, because she's partially invisible. Of course, Bong won't go through with things if Ghosty is standing right there :) how awkward. She's too shy anyway, I think she'll bolt. Agreed. Ghosty is a good person, and that mystery needs to be solved. Let the lovebirds deal with their own stuff.

High Society

Do you think the older brother really just ran away from his family, even knowing how much it would hurt his mother and sister? There's something else there and I need to know what it is. As for my four kids...you can see them all mending fences slowly, in a pretty natural way - except for Chang Soo and Yi Ji, who are just crumbling into sad, lonely, heartbroken pieces. I do believe that Yi Ji would get over it for the most part, and go on to have a happy life with a secret sad memory - but Chang Soo, no. Chang Soo is going to drink himself to death if his mother doesn't figure out that she can afford to have ONE of her kids marry for love and not for connections. Besides, Yi Ji is so freaking adorable that she'll probably be more valuable and important to that family than anyone else they could possibly find.Chang Soo just pulls at the heartstrings. I feel like his mother is having an slight awakening, though. I guess the whole purpose of the drama is awakenings. The brother part doesn't really interest me much--that family is such a trainwreck--but I like the back and forth with the foursome. Que Sera, Sera for college kids is about right.

I Remember You

I'm still catching up on this one (up to episode 9!), but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy it. Yes, the cops are incompetent, and the writing is pretty obvious, but I love the show's quirky/creepy vibe and the characters, who range from amusing to heartbreaking. The story of the two brothers has already made me cry, so I can only assume that I'll be a wreck by the end - however the writer chooses to end it. Until then, I'm strangely delighted by Hyeon's excitement at the prospect of a serial killer case. Look! He can smile!

Late Night Restaurant

The Scholar Who Walks at Night

Oooooooo, vampire kisses!!! This being a Lee Jun-Ki drama, I'm guessing that's the last we'll see of them for a while, but gosh, what we got was pretty good, yes? In fact the real kiss (as opposed to last week's rescue-breathing kisses) took me almost completely by surprise, which is such a rare treat in Dramaland. Sadly, the music is still not at all to my liking (including during the kissing -- gah!), which is a shame, because I'm loving just about everything else.I am up to episode 4 and okay, the special effects are low rent and I'm confusing things people are saying with what's actually in evidence on the screen but yeah, not so bad. SUPER cheesy in places.

This kiss would also make a pretty good gif, Kakashi...just a thought ;-)
(((pssst, I'm not watching this drama, hence I'm not in possession of the files, which I need to make gifs, so ... sorry. No gif)))

Assembly

I have not heard one bad thing about this yet, and we should be about 4 episodes in? It just takes me so long to watch anything lately, I'm not even current on shows I know I like.
I did want to check this out ... but I'm not super motivated. How is Taec doing? I haven't watched even a minute yet, so I can't say...but I haven't heard anything bad about this yet.

Last

Has anyone checked this out yet? I haven't gotten to it, but I hope it's good!It looks great and I'm looking forward to it, just haven't made it there yet.
Why do you guys have subs?! I don't!I haven't found this anywhere yet...

I Order You

I marathoned the first 12 episodes (they're only thirty minutes long), and I'm in love with this little show. Yunho isn't great, but he's not bad - he's definitely got some charm. And I want to put Kim Ga-eun in my pocket. She reminds me a bit of Kim Seul-gi, only with less manic energy. The plot itself is verrrry predictable, but the annoying parts don't last very long. The show knows that cuteness and romance are its strengths, and overall, I'd describe the show as being light and sweet. And generous with the skinship.I like her and he IS cute even if he's not much of an actor. I'll give it a look, probably! Since you mentioned skinship.

Orange Marmalade (Finale)

Like its namesake, Orange Marmalade was sweet and just a little tart. It tried really hard to be deep, too, with lessons on acceptance and being true to yourself, which was nice and all, but felt a bit forced to me at times. I've mentioned before that the pacing of this show was its weak point, and the finale continued that trend, taking excessive time to work through certain important plot elements while zooming through others so quickly I felt like I had whiplash. But my biggest complaint about the finale was the lack of integration of the Joseon storyline into the present. If the events in their previous lives were so integral to their stories today that they merited a 5-episode hiatus in the middle of the drama, why did only Jae-Min get to know about them? Five full episodes is an awful lot of time to spend in any drama, much less a 12-episode one, for backstories that none of the characters even remember.Ultimately, this was a fun drama, but nothing revelatory. I particularly enjoyed seeing Yeo Jin-Gu in an adult leading role, and meeting Seol Hyun (Ma-Ri) and Lee Jong-Hyun (Shi-Hoo) for the first time. They're both idols with relatively few acting credits before Orange Marmalade, but since this was a drama about a band, their presence here made more sense than idol-actors have in a lot of other shows in Dramaland. I found Lee Jong-Hyun to be particularly charismatic, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again in future projects.

Lee Jong-Hyun looking broody in what may be the most thematically appropriate PPL-part-time-job in the history of KDrama (although, ironically, Orange Marmalade's vamps all had purple eyes).

The Time We Were Not In Love

It took me a long time to get started with this drama, but once I did it quickly drew me in. Now I'm almost caught up with all the episodes available so far, which is about half of the total planned episode count, and I'm starting to wonder if we're ever going to find out what the deal is with Won. I'm also not keen on either of the second leads, both of whom feel very dull to me, which makes it all the more frustrating every time the show spends time on one of their insipid storylines instead of exploring the history and emotions of Ha-Na and Won. Overall, however, the frustrations are minor, and I'm enjoying this quirky, heartfelt little story.I'm glad to hear it's worth watching. Definitely going to download and marathon while in the car for 10 hours going to Tennessee. But I've dropped a Lee Jin Wook drama twice now (Nine and Three Musketeers) so even though I generally like him a lot, the storyline better hold me. I'm running out of dramas!

Second-lead Yoon Gyun-Sang was one of the Woodalchi cuties in Faith. He's still cute here, but Faith's Goryeo soldier persona flattered his youth and lanky figure better than egotistical concert pianist does.

Other

I watched all of Season 1 of Grace and Frankie and highly recommend it. Four seasoned and talented actors in the lead roles, great guest appearances, solid performances from 'the kids', and a really, really interesting story. I also watched No Tears for the Dead (Jang Dong Gun) - it was bloody and and entertaining; after re-watching Monster (OMGLeeMinki) I felt like continuing with the blood and the violence. Next on the list is Breathless, with Yang Ik Jun (better known here as Boss Hwang of the Dobis!), and since I seem to be enjoying the theme of violent men with children, it could be a 5th watch of Ahjussi, plus a 2d for The Professional. Suggest more, folks!Ajussi! That one's always a good choice!I recommend Man on Fire (2004) with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning. It's a classic of the violent-man-saves-kid genre. But Ahjussi did it even better.Oh yes, I've seen that one a couple of times, too. Probably time for a rewatch - I always love Denzel (ALWAYS) and Dakota Fanning was THE.CUTEST. kid ever.